Thoughts and observations about knitting, music, and life...but mostly knitting...

Friday, April 16, 2010

What's in your knitting basket?

Mega-post here...you might want to grab a sammich and a cold drink, pour another cup of coffee, or whatever. If you're popping open a beer...um...isn't it a little early for that?

It's been one of those weeks around here...muffler and tailpipe on the old car decided to separate ("irreconcilable differences?"), which led to a day-long fiasco with the muffler place down the street. A place that must be in a different time dimension since and hour and a half of "Laurie time" equals four hours of "Midas time". Had to cancel my voice lesson and ended up with a migraine.

Yesterday, I started the day with a dental exam. My philosophy is if you go to the dentist first thing in the morning, nothing worse can happen to you the rest of the day. I am cavity-free for another six months (YAY!), but was more than a little grogged out after being in the chair at 7:30am, foodless and (more importantly) coffeeless.

After that start to the day, I was ready to treat myself a bit, so I took myself out to lunch. No big deal...Bob Evans...it's right down the street. My original plan was to have breakfast, but I like their pot roast sandwich, and yesterday I had the Pot Roast Sandwich of the Gods. That roast must have been right out of the oven...omg...delicious...moist, lean, tender...

With my tummy full and happy, I went on a (short) road trip to Dublin to check out Temptations. I don't drive out to the 'burbs much, especially in the middle of the day, when the traffic is the most congested, and I'd put off going to this shop for a long time for that reason. But it was worth it...it was so, so, SO worth it. If you're ever anywhere near Ohio, you need to visit Temptations! I was given a quick tour of the shop by Karen, the awesome owner, then left to my own devices. They have four rooms of yarn, a room of books/magazines, and a small room of...Are you ready for this?...a room of KNITTING NEEDLES!!! If you remember my knitting needle fiasco of a month or so back, you know I was ready to fall on my knees and start chanting when I saw this. I've never seen so many knitting needles in one place in my life. It is the motherlode...

Yes...I shopped. I bought a cute little petite cable needle, a 40" Addi Turbo Lace for the Luna Moth shawl...and some yarn...sock yarn...lovely sock yarn. I can't show it to you because it's the beginning of my holiday knitting. And some of the recipients of the projects to be made with this yarn are readers of this blog. I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise. Please know it is killing me not to show off this yarn.

Then I went to WonderKnit. I saw a Facebook post the other week that said they had the really super-short Hiya Hiya circular needles and thought that might be just the thing to help me with the Butterfly Garden Socks. The socks were coming along quite nicely until I started working on the leg which has a purl background. I'm very good at avoiding ladders with knit stitches...not so good (not anywhere NEAR good!) when I'm purling. I also wanted to pick up another skein of the green Cascade Rustic.

As always WonderKnit had beautiful, tempting yarns, but I limited myself to the green Rustic and a 9" Hiya Hiya circ. I may be back soon to pick up a few skeins of the red Cascade Rustic, though...it's seriously calling to me.

I'll tell you this about that 9" circ...it's okay, but that's all. It would help if it was a little pointier. And I think I'll get a 12" when she gets them in. The stitches are just a little jammed up. But it does work, and I'm considerably less laddery now.

Oh, and I got a huge order from Knit Picks yesterday, including six balls of beloved City Tweed DK and a bunch of notions. I love Knit Picks. They're pretty close to perfect. My only frustration is their shipping. I live about 20 minutes from their warehouse (Mapquest says 22.9 miles, 28 minutes), and it usually takes about five days to get an order. I also order a lot from Paradise Fibers. Yes, I am in their affiliate program - I'm not saying this because I'm in their affiliate program, I'm in their affiliate program because of this. They are in Spokane, Washington - according to Mapquest, 2,132.18 miles and 31 hours away. Last Thursday afternoon, LATE in the afternoon, I placed an order with them. My order arrived on Saturday!!!

So...while I love, love, LOVE Knit Picks...if something can ship from 2,000 miles away and arrive in two days, something can certainly ship from 23 miles away and arrive in less then five, wouldn't ya think?

And now it's Show & Tell Time! My title is "What's in Your Knitting Basket?", so I thought I'd give you an update on what's in mine. This doesn't include the Triangle Scarf, the Ten-Stitch Blanket, or the Christmas Tree Skirt, since they're all repetitive, long-term things. I'll show them off when they're done. These are the "sexy projects".

Here's the Luna Moth - I'm well into the green now and out of "mac & cheese territory". Stouffer's will be sad to see their sales go down, but my jeans and my scale will be much happier now. Somewhere in the midst of that orange-yellow, I was doubting my fondness for this pattern. I'm doubting no longer - this pattern rocks!

Here's the Evenstar Shawl, halfway through Clue #4. When I got my 60" circ and was able to spread this out a little more and see what I'd done, I almost hyperventilated. This is my first attempt at serious lace. I would have been happy if it looked somewhat similar to what it was supposed to look like...I can't believe I knit this. I can't believe it so much that I'm giving you TWO pictures to ooh and aah over. I also can't believe that Shimmer striped up so much with this pattern. I seriously don't like those brown stripes..

Now for the Butterfly Garden sock. I'm about 1/3 of the way done with the leg with the butterfly pattern. You can also check out that little 9" circ...and my ugly, floppy, laddery purl stitches from using the dpns...sigh...

Next is the Pine and Ivy Shawl. I'm only five rows into this, but hope to make some major progress on it today.

And the Brandywine. According to the pattern, I'm a little over halfway finished with this one, but according to my yarn supply, I'm not that far along. This is such a nice little easy pattern...and so beautiful. I didn't pin out the edges for the picture because I was afraid of the stitches coming off the needle.

Here's the Citron Shawl. I love this pattern so much, and it's perfect for the Mini Mochi yarn that I hated. I'll need to get another ball or two to finish this one, and I have plans to make several more in other colors. Some of these may end up being Christmas gifts...ya never know! I had hoped to have this one finished today to wear to a wedding tomorrow night, but no such luck...

Lastly, is my newest project, the Boneyard Shawl, knit in that brand new City Tweed DK in Tabby. Oh, I'm only 24 rows into this one, and I know I'm gonna love it when it's done!

We're heading to Cincinnati for a wedding tomorrow. Can't decide which project to take, so I'll probably just take them all - after all, this is what's in my knitting basket right now.

You are one busy gal!!! I love going to WEBS and they are having a sale right now. They are suppose to be the world's largest. I have too many things in my yarn basket to name them (I'm embarrassed to) and won't even list them on Ravelry..lol.

About Me

So many times in my life I have been told, "You should write a book!". So I figured I'd start small. I'm a rabid knitter who also enjoys other types of needlework, sings, and has a ridiculous variety of other interests. You'll probably read a little more about all of these things in days to come.